UK Trains

Ah!! the value of our English cousins. At first I was reluctant to open the site thinking that Red Spotted Hanky might be a cover for a risque site but then thought the reference might be to the bandanas that old brakemen used for signaling. On viewing not sure if I should be pleased or disappointed.

Looking interesting. Would like to hear from our regular posters from England.

Hmm. I did a quick comparison with nationalrail.co.uk, booking London to York on Tuesday 11th June, travelling after 09.00. Just for fun, I did the same on a site I've used before, thetrainline.com. All of those sites showed me the same 5 departures between 09.00 and 10.00 and with exactly the same choice of tickets and identical prices. I quite like the user interface on redspottedhanky and unless they charge a handling fee I can't think of any reason I wouldn't use them, but their claim that they can save you 50% on the walk-up fare by buying in advance is no different to what you can get on any of the other sites.

They do rebate 1% of the cost into their loyalty points scheme but that is only likely to be of use if spending £100+. When they started they had a number of promotional offers, but have been quiet as of late.

It is a cheerful name to disguise that it is owned by the French information technology services company ATOS.

I must tread on eggshells here. There are a number of ticket resellers in the UK market which is highly competitive and free-market. In addition to Red Spotted Hanky there is The Trainline and several others. Any British railway company can (and do) also sell any normal ticket on any operator's services. This accounts for some here pushing hard to get all tickets for British trains through EastCoast which is the company which runs between Kings Cross and Edinburgh via Doncaster and York. I have seen a number of ... ahem .... problems with third party sales of tickets. They only have access to normal tickets, and this is the case with other TOCs (Train Operating Company - franchise holders for a particular route) cross selling. They don't have access to all the short term promotions and here today and gone tomorrow specials which are usually internet only sales on the actual TOC website of that company. An example is the recent flash promotion by Chiltern Railways of service between Birmingham and London for 25 pence (yes, £00.25). While widely advertised only on their site could tickets be bought. So it is well advised to shop around and always check the website of the providing TOC. Also, I have seen several times when ticket restrictions were not explained by third party vendors and unhappy families had to buy new full-fare tickets in addition to their now-worthless mail order tickets. Other companies do sell legal tickets, and even the ones just referenced would have been legal if the conditions had been followed, and other TOCs cross-selling have the legal duty to sell the least expensive "appropriate" tickets, but sometimes it doesn't work out. So, can I suggest that you read the terms and conditions carefully, shop around, and always check to see if the providing TOC has a better deal.

Nigel - does your warning about not seeing the availability of any short term "specials" also apply to searches using the National Rail portal?

I haven't done searches for specials on National Rail (I usually use it - almost daily - for train times not fares), but I'm pretty sure that they don't appear there. I may be wrong, but I wouldn't expect to see London Midland bank holiday specials there, nor the Chiltern 25p to London nor the super cheap Virgin specials. To appear on National Rail they have to be released in time for the booking horizons used by ATOC. Many of the specials are ad-hoc so I can't see how they'd get loaded. If somebody can trump me please speak up.... I'm happy to learn more ...